Adjutant General's Corps welcomes 8 into Hall of Fame

FORT JACKSON, S.C. -- Fort Jackson welcomed eight men and women into the Adjutant General's Corps Hall of Fame last week, a roster that included the deputy commandant of the Adjutant General School at Fort Jackson.

The program honors leaders from the Army's human resources ranks, known as the Adjutant General Corps, and recognizes people who have made positive, lasting and significant contributions to the corps. The inductees were welcomed to Fort Jackson last week during a special reception at the Soldier Support Institute.

Col. Todd Garlick, commander of the Soldier Support Institute, said there was a "symmetry" with having last week's ceremony at a post that routinely trains new Soldiers for duty.

"The sons and daughters of America are embarking on their careers, full of energy, full of hope and setting off to achieve their dreams and aspirations, while here, in this auditorium, we're inducting eight members into the Adjutant General Corps Hall of Fame for a career of service in support of Soldiers," Garlick said. "Our job in the Adjutant General Corps is to do everything we can, morally, legally and ethically, to care for those Soldiers and their families. The Soldiers and Department of Army civilians we're recognizing today have made that their life's passion."

All inductees are honored with a permanent photo display in the AG Corps Hall of Honor at the Adjutant General School. This year's inductees join those from past years with displays on a kiosk inside the school where students can view them.

"Knowing who is on that wall upstairs in the Hall of Honor, and what they've done to advance our corps, our Army and our nation, makes it a very humbling experience, one to be treated with careful reflection and respect," said Mike Molosso, deputy commandant at AG School, and one of this year's Hall of Fame inductees.

"I've always believed our mission is to serve commanders, Soldiers and families to the fullest extent possible," Molosso said. "It has always been about making the (human resources) system work for them, not the other way around. It's always been about the team, and there's no 'I' in 'team,' 'Army' or 'corps.'"

Inducted during Friday's ceremony were:

Patricia Hickerson

Retired Maj. Gen. Patricia Hickerson ended her 32-year career as Adjutant General of the Army, where she began the design and development of the Army Casualty Information Processing System, which became the basis for the Defense Casualty Information Processing System in use today. She was also critical in the development and fielding of key Army enterprise personnel systems, such as the Standard Installation/Division Personnel System and Personnel Electronic Records management System, which permitted the elimination of the paper Military Personnel Records Jacket. Hickerson's assignments include serving as executive director of the Military Postal Service Agency; commander of the Army Physical Disability Agency, and the commander of the 14th Army Band.

Lester Bowen

Retired Col. Lester R. Bowen retired as deputy chief of staff, Operations/Mobilization, Total Army Personnel Command after 26 years of Army service. Bowen deployed to Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm as chief of Theater Personnel Operations in the provisional 10th Theater Personnel Command, and executed the mission of the Theater Adjutant General, a first for modern military history. His work as the Theater Adjutant General formed the basis of how the Army supports leaders and formations in current deployments. Bowen was also the longest serving G-1 in the history of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Michael R. Molosso

Retired Col. Michael R. Molosso ended his 27-year career as commandant of the Adjutant General School in 2002. Under his leadership, the school molded an annual student workload of 7,000 personnel into high performing Adjutant General and Human Resources professionals. He also led the Force Design Update conversion of Personnel Groups into consolidated Corps G1/AGs, and the Enlisted Career Management Field 71 consolidation study, which merged CMF 71 Soldiers into the Enlisted AG 42 Branch of today. Molosso was commander of the Eastern Sector, U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command, covering 33 stations throughout the eastern half of the contiguous United States and Puerto Rico. He developed and implemented a customer service ethos known as "The Prime Directive," which served as the support center pole for commanders and their organizations. Molosso continues to serve in a civilian capacity as deputy commandant of the Adjutant General School.

Robert Ortiz-Abreu, Jr.

Retired Col. Robert Ortiz-Abreu, Jr. was Corps Support Command Secretary to the General Staff during the COSCOM deployment to Operation Desert Shield and Storm. Ortiz was at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, and subsequently authored the first Army Stop Loss policies for all three components in support of the Global War on Terrorism following the 9/11 attacks. He served as the G1/AG for III Corps. The Corps headquarters deployed to Iraq in January 2004 and replaced V Corps as Combined Joint Task Force 7 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. This was III Corps' first combat deployment since World War II. Ortiz led the command's effort to reorganize and split the headquarters into Multi-National Force-Iraq and Multi-National Corps-Iraq. His G1 team restructured two major command headquarters, resolved three- and four-star complex command functions and relationships, ensuring each headquarters was properly manned for combat operations for the Iraqi theater.

Jerry Dillard

Retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Jerry Dillard dedicated nearly 33 years of service before retiring as the Warrant Officer Advisor/Assistant Executive Officer to the Chief of Staff of the Army. He provided insight and Human Resources counsel to the most senior leaders of our Army and developed numerous cost saving processes to improve the proficiencies within the office. Since his retirement in 2006, Dillard has been serving as the chief editor and facilitator for S1NET. In June 2009, the S1NET became the largest Battle Command Knowledge System forum, and remains the most active Army Professional Forum today.

Gerald Sims

Retired Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gerald Sims served as the second Chief Warrant Officer of the Adjutant General's Corp. He provided expertise during the Personnel Services Delivery Redesign and was the main driving force in updating the Warrant Officer Management system. Sims deployed to Iraq and assessed the Iraqi Army's Combat Service Support capabilities, and was part of standing up the FORSCOM Power Projection Enhancement Team. Sims retired with more than 30 years of service and continues to serve as the Deputy Chief of the Army Personnel Records Division at Human Resources Command.

William Hoffer

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. William Hoffer retired from the Army after 31 years of service as command sergeant major of Human Resources Command. His efforts facilitated better human resources business practices at the strategic and operational levels as well as the AG Community at the Army's tactical level. During his prior assignment as command sergeant major of the 38th Personnel Services Battalion, he spent almost five years creating an environment of highly trained professional Human Resources Soldiers. His constant mentoring and care for Soldiers made a tremendous impact during their 10 month deployment to Bosnia. Hoffer now serves the Chief Military Personnel Services Division, Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

Gerald Purcell

Retired Sgt. Maj. Gerald Purcell served in the AG Corps for more than 24 years, and retired as sergeant major of the Directorate of Military Personnel Management, Deployment Cycle Support, in Washington D.C. Since his retirement, Purcell continues to work as the desk policy officer in the Directorate of Military Personnel Management. Purcell implemented the first major overhaul of the SPC-SGT Semi-Centralized Promotion System in 30 years, and shifted the foundation of the Semi-Centralized Promotion System to a paperless process. Purcell developed a system for the Army data bases of record to automatically capture and calculate promotion scores, increasing the relevancy of Soldiers records for promotion and reducing the workload on the Human Resources community.